As house prices rise everywhere and London booms, gazumping and other familiar
problems are back.

The housing market is picking up again, which means the familiar cast of property nasties - greedy vendors, gazumping buyers and the oily agents in between - are rising like ghouls back from the dead. And they are bringing with them the old array of dirty tricks that can turn the homebuying process from being merely difficult into pure hell.

Anecdotal reports are growing of gazumping, especially in property hotspots like London and desirable postcodes of regional cities. With supply short and prices rising, buyers increasingly panic. The backdrop of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme - with all the controversy it has sparked in recent days - makes younger buyers as frightened of delaying their purchase (prices rising further out of their reach) as they are of diving in at once (buying at what feel like high prices and when mortgage rates will probably rise).

It’s a horrible situation for all buyers who are losing their leverage in what is increasingly a seller’s market. But less scrupulous agents are doubtless relishing the long-absent power of being able to whip up a little panic - and profit from it.

All sound worryingly familiar? If you can’t quite remember the property landscape of 2006 and 2007, what follows is a handy refresher on the dirty tricks of a housing boom - and how to survive them.

Buyers are anxious in a seller’s market, fearing they will lose the property of their dreams through some slip or hitch. They imagine a rival buyer, perhaps richer or quicker, is lurking nearby, ready to snatch their prize. This makes them vulnerable - and the agent knows it. It’s in the agents’ interests to sell the services of their in-house mortgage broker, as commissions are at stake. Typically, he does it with guile. He might say to the buyer: “Well, the seller is determined that this should go through without delay, and the best way to guarantee that would be to use our own mortgage broker. That way we could chase everything along and make sure the vendor is satisfied.”

This puts the buyer in a difficult position. Some of the best mortgage deals currently available are those only arranged directly with the lender. Brokers cannot sell them, so to go with a broker, ostensibly to satisfy the vendor, could be costly.

Buyers should resist the pressure. And it is against the law for agents to apply it. Jan Hytch, President of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: “Unscrupulous agents who make it difficult for buyers to proceed without speaking to their own mortgage provider are acting against guidance issued by the Office of Fair Trading in 2008. It is illegal for estate agents to put undue pressure on buyers. Violating this legislation has severe consequences and could result in the agent receiving fines or even a prison sentence.”

Dirty trick no. 2. ‘Fake’ discounts on newly built properties

Developers have long been cagey about the ‘real’ prices of their newly-built homes. Some recent promotions to attract criticism have been those where developers advertise properties for 80pc of their actual price. This is because developers are seeking buyers using the Help to Buy scheme, where a loan of 20pc of the price is advanced by the Government - to be repaid by the borrower at a later date.

Developers justified the tactic, which the Daily Telegraph reported first in May, by saying the two different advertised prices - the full one and the ‘discounted’ one - reflected “different methods of purchase”. But mortgage brokers were damning, describing it as “potentially misleading”.

Remember the suspect property “clubs” that promised to help you buy flats without stumping up a penny? The phenomenon goes back to 2005 and 2006 and here’s how it worked. You would buy a flat marketed at £200,000 through the “club”. In fact, the price was discounted to £180,000. You would use the surveyors and solicitors and mortgage brokers recommended by the club. And you would apply for a £180,000 mortgage. Somehow, though, the lender never knew about the discount. It advanced £180,000 on the understanding that you had put in a deposit of £20,000. Today similar-sounding offers are doing the rounds again, with promises to help investors buy “no money down”. Don’t do it. No reputable lender will advance 100pc of a property’s value. At worst, entering such a deal could make you party to mortgage fraud.

Dirty trick no.4 Gazumping

Gazumping is an especially nasty by-product of a booming housing market. It describes a situation where an unreliable - and probably greedy - seller accepts a higher price on their property despite already having accepted an offer from another buyer.

The original buyer either has to improve their offer or lose the property – and often they have already spent hundreds of pounds on conveyancing fees and a survey.

Frank Malina, 27, had his £210,000 offer accepted on a property in April this year, where in fact he gazumped a previous buyer, whose lower offer had already been accepted. Two weeks later his offer was improved on by a third buyer and Mr Malina and his wife had to commit more money than they could realistically afford – only for the deal to fall through anyway.

“I am happy we didn’t buy the house in the end. It wasn’t meant for us,” said Mr Malina, co-founder of FlatmateRooms.co.uk, who lives with his wife Bozena and their two children near Wigan in the north west of England. “But I lost more than £450 on a structural survey and search fees as well as a lot of confidence in the market.”

The opposite of gazumping is gazundering, where a buyer decides at the last minute to drop their offer. It means the seller then has to decide whether to accept less or find new buyers but is more common in a depressed property market.

To avoid being gazumped, as a buyer you can ask for the property to be taken off the market for an agreed period so other buyers are less likely to pounce – make sure this request is made in writing in case you later have cause to complain. It also helps to have a solicitor and mortgage application lined up to make sure the sales process is as quick as possible.

Dirty trick no. 5. Deliberately inducing panic

Sealed bids and mass viewings often stir up panic among would-be buyers. Nicholas Ayre, managing director of homebuying agency Home Fusion, said: “Sometimes estate agents get lazy and they arrange all the viewings on a Saturday, for example, when you see all and sundry walking around.” These mass viewings create a heightened sense of competition, which is further exacerbated by a sealed bid, where each potential buyer makes an offer that no other bidders can see.

Kate Faulkner, a property market analyst of website Property Checklists, said: “I am not a fan of sealed bids because they encourage people to overpay. It makes the property seem more desirable from an emotional perspective.”

However, Ms Faulkner said sealed bids can be a fair way to deal with multiple buyers, as long as the buyers’ situation is taken into consideration as much as the top price. “A seller would be foolish to go for the highest amount of money – it will cause the most problems if the buyer is not ready to move,” she said.

Would-be buyers should be very careful not to overpay, said Ms Faulkner. “Be steadfast on what you can afford and don’t let anyone rush your decision,” she said. “There is plenty of free advice available. In my experience, when I’ve lost a property I really wanted, there has always been a better one around the corner.”

When a property market is busy, there is a lot of pressure on the buyer to move quickly or commit more money than they initially planned.

In this situation, it is crucial for buyers to do their homework.

“I truly believe that people shouldn’t panic buy. You should buy when the time is right for you, not in reaction to what the market is doing,” said property expert Sarah Beeny. “You are buying for 25 years and in that time the market will go up and down, so don’t rush into it.

“Make a considered decision and don’t stretch beyond your budget.”

Before you start looking for a property, you should have a mortgage agreed in principle, Ms Beeny said. “Find out how much you can borrow based on your income and then look around for the best mortgage available,” she said.

Ms Beeny also recommended lining up a solicitor in advance. “You can establish a good relationship and have everything in place when you want to put in an offer – it means the process is less painful and you lessen the risk of losing the property because of delays.”

When you start looking at properties, the most important thing is to look at prices in the surrounding area. “If a new build flat is being valued at £100,000 more than the surrounding properties, for example, there is something out of place,” said Ms Beeny.

Information on sold prices nearby is available online and you can ask neighbours for further details.